The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-05-04
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON
Subject: What is the Moral Effect
of Secret Societies."

It appears that in Solomon's time, as in al
subsequent periods of the world there wer
people too much disposed to tell all they knew
It was blab, blab, blab; physicians revealin:
the case of their patients, lawyers exposing
the private affairs of their clients, neighbor
advertising the faults of the next door resi-
dent pretended friends betraying condolences
One-haf of the trouble of every community
comes from the fact tnat so many people hav'
no capacity to keep their mouths shut.
When hear something disparaging of yol
my first duty is not to tell you. But If tel
you what somebody has said against you
and then go out and tell everybody else wha
/ told you, and they 60 out and tell other
what l told them that told you, and we al
go out, some to hunt up the originator of tht
story and others to hunt it down, we shall ge
the whole community talking about what
you did do and what you did not do, ant
there will be as many scalpS taken as though
a band of ModocS had swept upon helpless
village. We have two ears but only one
tongue, physiological suggestion that We
ought to hear good deal more than We tell
Let us join a conspiracy that we will tell
each other all the good and nothing Of the
i'll, and then there will not be such awful need
of sermons on Solomon's words: Discover
not secret to another"
Solomon had very large domestic circle.
In his earlier days he had very confused no
tions about monogamy and polygamy, and
his multitudinous associates in the matrimo-
NAL state kept him too well informed as to
what was going on in Jerusalem. They gath.
cred up all the privacies of the city and
poured them into his ear, and his family be-
came Sorosis, OF female debating society Of
700, discussing day after day all the Difficult
ties between husbands and wives, between
employers and employees, between rulers AMI
subjects, until Solomon, in my text, deploreS
volubility about affairs that do not belong to
us and extols the virtue Of secretiyeness.
By the power Of a secret divulged families,
churches, neighborhoods, nations fly apart.
By the power Of secret kept great charities,
socialities, reformatory movements and Chris
tian enterprises may be advanced. Men are
gregarious-cattle in herds, fish in schools,
birds in fiocks, men in social circles. You
may by the discharge Of gun scatter
q flock Of quails, or by the plunge of
the anchor send apart the denizens Of the
sea, but they will gather themselves together
again. If you, by some new power, could
break the associations in which men now
it so. He has gathered all the flowers and
shrubs into associations. You may plant one
forget-me-not or heart's-ease alone, away OFF
upon the hillside, but it will soon hunt
up some other forget-me-not or hearts
ease Plants love company. You will find
them talking to each other in the dew. A
galaxy Of stars IS only mutual life insur-
ance company. You sometimes see man
with no outbranchings Of sympathy. His
nature is cold and hard like ships mast
iceglazed, which the most agile sailor
roots and a thousand branches. In
Vulnerable tendrils climb their hearts,
and blossom all the way up, and the fowls
of heaven sing in the branches. In conse-
quence Of this tendency we find men coming
together in tribes, in communities, in churches,
in societies Some gather together to culti-
vate the arts, some to plan for the welfare Of
the State, some to discuss religious themes,
some to kindle their mirth, some to advance
their craft. So every active community is
divided into associations Of artists, of
merchants, Of bookbinders, Of carpenters, of
mssons, Of plasterers, of shipwrights, of
plumbers. Do you cry out against itl Then
you cry out against tendency divinely i'm
planted Your Trades would accomplish no
more than if you should preach to busy
ant-hill or beehive long sermon against
secret societies.
Here We find the oft-discussed question
whether associations that do their work with
closed doors and admit their members by
passwords, and greet each other with a
secret grip are right or wrong. I answer
that it depends entirely on the nature of the
object for which they meet. Is it to pass
the hours in revelry, wassail, blasphemy
and obscene talk, or to plot trouble
to the State, or to debauch the in
nocent, then I say with an emphasis
that no man can mistake: No! But is tne
object the defence of the rights of any class
against oppression, the improvement of the
mind, the enlargement of the heart, the ad-
vancement of art, the defense Of the govern
uent. the extirpation of crime OF the kind
ing Of a pure-hearted socially, then say,
with Just as much emphasis: Yes.
There is no need that we who plan for the
conquest of right over wrong should publish
to all the world our intentions. The General
of an army never sends to the opposing
troops information of the coming attack
Shall we who have enlisted in the cause of
Go God ans1,hs and humanity expose our plans to
plot the ruin: Of all the enterprises
Of Satan and his cohorts. When
they expect us by day, we will fall upon them
by night. While they are strengthening
their; left wing we will double up their right.
By q plan Of battle formed in secret conclave
we will come suddenly upon them crying:
Tho sword Of the Lord and of Gideon"
Secresy of plot and execution are wrong
only when the object and ends are
nsfarious. Every family is a. secret
banking and insurance institution. Those
men who have no capacity to keep q
secret are unfit for positions Of trust any
where. There are thousands of men whose
vital need Is culturing capacity TO keepa
secret. Men talk too much, and women too.
There is time to keep silence as well as
time to speak
Although not belonging to any Of the great
secret societies about which there has been
so much violent discussion, have only words
OF praise for those associations which have for
their object the maintenance Of right against
wrong, or the reclamation Of inebriateS, or,
like the score Of mutual benefit societies,
called by different names, that pro-
vide temporary relief for widows and
orphans, and for men incapacitated by sick
ness or accident from earning a livelihood.
Had it not been for the large number of
secret labor organizations in this country
monopoly would long ago have, under its
ponderous wheels, ground the laborlnS
classes into an intolerable servitude.
The men who want the whole earth
to themselves would have got it be-
fore this, had it not been for the
banding together Of great secret organiza-
tions And, while We deplore many things
that have been done by them, their existence
finctly pointed out by the providence of God.
Such organizations are trying to dismiss from
their association all members in favor Of
anarchy and social chaos They will gradu-
ally cease anything like tyranny over their
members and will forbid violent interference
with any mans work whether he belongs to
their union or il outside of it. and will declare
their disgust with any such rule as that passed
in England by the Manchester Brlcklayers
Association, which says any man found run
ming or working beyond regular speed,
shall be fined two shllings and SIX
pence for the first offense, five shll-
iings for the second, ten shillings for the
third and if still persisting shall be dealt with
as the committee think proper. There are
secret societies in our colleges that have letters
of the Greek alphabet for their nomenclature,